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this month (I'm so stingy with five stars on Goodreads and The Story Graph!)

Here are the highlights of my January.

The A-List

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood A- While not as famous as The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s just as harrowing and relevant (for different reasons). It’s about the last human, as a virus has destroyed any human who hasn’t been genetically altered. Kinda read as a metaphor for A, reading it for the first time in 2026. I have the other two books in the trilogy check out from the library and hope they’re just as good.

Magic Kingdom for Sale-Sold! By Terry Brooks A- THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN SHANNARA! It’s FUN. A widower sees an ad for a magic kingdom for sale, buys it, and finds out that his new title of King has a lot of things he wasn’t bargaining for. Alas, the library doesn’t have any more of this series (yet every single one of Shannara), so no clue when I can get to the other five.

Fraternity by Andy Mientus A- It’s 1991, and the new student, running from his past scandal with a male teacher at his last boarding school, finds himself invited to a secret gay fraternity who has a dark magic book that the upper elite didn’t want getting out of their hands. I hope Mientus writes more books as this one was a good read.

The B-List

Queen Esther by John Irving B+ I kinda wish I hadn’t reread The Cider House Rules (a few characters show up, Esther is adopted from the Dr. Larch’s orphanage before the events of Cider House Rules), as that one was so good, which made this one feel…unneeded. And it’s not even Esther’s story. It’s her son’s story, so false advertising with the name…John Irving is such a fantastic writer, and I sorta wish this one hadn’t been written as The Last Chairlift was so much better (he said The Last Chairlift would be his final long novel. This one is 400 pages compared to Chairlift’s 900ish.)

The Editor by Steven Rowley B+. A young gay writer finds his first book accepted for publication by Jackie Onassis. I think this is my fave by Rowley so far.

This Day Changes Everything by Edward Underhill B+. Two queer teens about to march in the high school band part of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade meet and have an epic 24 hours where they fall for each other. Fun and felt inspired by David Levithan.

LaRose by Louise Erdrich B+. In 1999, a neighbour accidentally kills the child of his neighbour, and per his indigenous tradition, gives his own child to replace the lost one. Really dark and heavy, but so well written.

Firestarter by Stephen King (RR) B I first read this one in 2020 right after The Institute, and still think The Institute is better (with similar themes). A young girl has the power of pyrokinesis.

The Uncool by Cameron Crowe B. I was hoping for more about his movies, but Crowe focused on his early music writing career and then the Almost Famous musical, skipping over his entire film career, so I was disappointed in this memoir. If you’re interested in the story that inspired Almost Famous, you’ll like it more.

My Life to Live by Agnes Nixon B. Nixon’s life read like an Adriana Trigiani novel. I never watched AMC nor OLTL (but my mom watched OLTL so I was pretty familiar with the characters), but the book focused on AMC and OLTL was an afterthought. Loving wasn’t even mentioned (never saw a minute of that one…) Definitely worth a read for a fan of either soap.

Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron B-. The AppleTV series with Emma Thompson was better…her character didn’t have a big part in the book, and her character is the best thing

The C-List

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk C+ Boring boring boring dud is more like it. I was hoping for more since I liked Better Call Saul so much, but it was such a chore to read.

Alias Mrs. Doubtfire by Anne Fine C+ The movie is SO MUCH BETTER, although the reveal in the book was fun (spoiler: Daniel was a nude model and Miranda needed Madame Doubtfire at the same time as his nude modeling. Obviously had to be changed for a family film though!)